Job went pretty smoothly, but I owe my next door neighbor big time. That was a PITA to get the old one down the access ladder, and the new (and bigger) one back up. Although he basically guided it up the ladder while i did a 130+lb shoulder press to push it up to him.

had to cut the cold and hot CPVC and splice in about 10" on the risers and put in a link to extend the pressure relief drain pipe to accommodate the taller height of the new heater, but all that went well. no leaks so far.

I've never done brazing before, so i was looking forward to giving that a try (the pressure relief pipe was hard soldered in) but they've got these cool ass "Shark Bite" fittings now that are awesome. and specifically designed to be used w/water heater fittings. you basically just clean up the ends of your cuts, and these fittings are attached to braided flex hoses in different lengths, and they litterally just press on to the cut end of your pipe. so that saved me a ton of time. because again, the new height of the heater changed the geometry of the old pipe and added about 10 or so inches to the length. flex hose was perfect.